What Are Backlinks in SEO? Types, Examples, Benefits

Backlinks are inbound links that indicate traffic coming from other websites to yours. These links show that your website is popular and trusted by established businesses. Therefore, quality backlinks from reputed and high-authority websites have the potential to improve your rankings on search engines. 

There are various techniques for creating and acquiring backlinks. In this blog, we will dive deeper into why backlinks are important, how to build backlinks, and more. 

What Are Backlinks in SEO?

Backlinks are links that your website acquires or earn from other sites. They are like a vote of confidence that tells search engines they trust you and your content is credible, useful, and worth reading. The more links or votes your website earns, the higher it will reach on Google rankings.

The concept of backlinks is not new. It is an old and crucial part of the search engine algorithm. Although Google has made several changes in its algorithm over the years, backlinks continue to be a key ranking factor. In fact, they are among the top three essential factors for higher in search engine result pages. 

Links drive organic and referral traffic to your site, increasing brand awareness and supporting your SEO efforts. Websites can naturally acquire backlinks, but marketers and website owners must work hard to generate and maintain them. Check out more about the value of the backlink through our SEO course!

Not all backlinks are created equal. You need to earn high-quality backlinks from reputable websites to rank higher on search engines. One quality backlink can outperform around 100 low-quality links. 

There are two types of backlinks- total backlinks and total referral domains. The former refers to the total number of links your site gets from other domains, whereas the latter refers to the number of individual websites that share those links. 

What are the Types of Backlinks?

There are two main types of backlinks: do-follow and no-follow.

1. Do-follow Backlink 

Do-follow links are the most important type of link to get for SEO. They notify search engines that the information on the linked web page is noteworthy.

A do-follow link in a blog indicates that the website wants Google to note that the content on the other end adds knowledge to the blog. As such, they are often used as reference links in informative web content. From a user experience perspective, users can follow the link to learn more about the topic. 

As valuable endorsements, do-follow links contribute to your site’s authority and credibility 

for search engines, increasing your SEO performance. A well-executed backlink strategy for SaaS and e-commerce businesses helps your website get search engine rankings and attract more organic traffic, making it a necessary element for online success.

2. No-follow Backlink

No-follow backlinks are less critical than do-follow backlinks. SEOs use no-follow links to inform search engines to ignore the content or link on the other end as it is not considered relevant.

Even though no-follow links aren't valuable in SEO and won’t shoot your content to top rankings on Google, yet they have a place in backlinking strategies. It’s essential to have a balance of no-follow and do-follow.